Weary Kings still have the energy to win the Stanley Cup

NEW YORK – With little else to do during a six-hour flight, the Kings made a pillow fort Sunday.

It certainly appeared that way. A photo, sent out through one of defenseman Willie Mitchell’s social-media accounts, showed an extensive sprawl of pillows and blankets on the floor of the team’s chartered plane.

At this point in the playoffs, sleep – at any time, in any place – is huge. That’s particularly true for the Kings, who have played an extraordinary amount of hockey in the past two months. How much energy will they have for Monday’s Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final against the New York Rangers?

“Guys are getting their rest,” winger Justin Williams said upon the team’s arrival. “You should have seen the plane ride over here. It was all lights-out, and guys were sleeping. We’ll be fine. It’s the Cup Final. There’s no excuse for not being ready or not being prepared or being too tired. You get yourself ready.”

Naturally, the Kings would say that. They’re not going to admit any weakness, but even Coach Darryl Sutter has acknowledged, in recent days, his concern about how hard the Kings have had to work.

The Kings are about to play their 24th game of this postseason. No team has ever played more than 26. In the past 12 days, the Kings have played five games, with four in overtime and two in double overtime.

In that span, the Kings have played 362 minutes, 53 seconds, of hockey, while their Final opponent, the Rangers, has played 215:02. Then there’s the fact that the Kings have expended significant energy, in each of their past three games, in rallying from two-goal, first-period deficits to win.

“We’re in a results-oriented league,” Williams said, “and the results are, we’re up 2-0. I don’t care how we got here.”

There’s one big factor that might negate the “Kings getting tired” narrative: the fact that, in their past two games, the Kings have played better in the third period than they did in the first period. Much better.

If the Rangers are on the verge of wearing down the Kings, then why did the Kings rally from a two-goal deficit in the third period of Saturday’s Game 2 and win the game in its 91st minute?

“We’re playing hard,” Kings center Anze Kopitar said. “Obviously, the game plan is not to be down two goals, but we battled back. I don’t know what else to say really. It’s not encouraging to get down, but it seems when we do get down, that desperation kicks in.”

Still, it’s accurate to say that the Kings – tired or rested – can’t continue to play with fire. For two months, they’ve danced around it. Against San Jose, the Ducks and Chicago, they got singed, but never engulfed.

It’s the series against the Ducks that the Kings will want to avoid repeating. They led it 2-0, but with two far-from-dominating efforts, and the Ducks then won the next three games. That forced the Kings to win the series in seven games.

The Rangers, by all accounts, aren’t going away. For long stretches of the first two games, they gave the Kings fits with their speed and forechecking, and the Kings certainly can’t count on beating goalie Henrik Lundqivst four or five times every game.

“Our guys are going to be real focused,” Coach Alain Vigneault said. “We need to hold serve. We’re back in our building. We’ve played some good hockey. We might feel that we deserve a better outcome than what we have right now, which is trailing by two games. But it doesn’t matter.”

In Game 3, the Kings will have to try to manage the Rangers, but also themselves.

How much jump, for instance, will defenseman Drew Doughty have, after he played a career-high 41 minutes, 41 seconds in Game 2.

Are the Kings like cell phones, who can be recharged between usages, or are they like tires, with only so much tread life? Monday’s game will be a major test.

“The longer the series go, the longer the playoffs go, you get courage and determination and extra effort,” Sutter said. “You’re never going to be fresh. You’re never going to feel as good as you did in November. That’s the way it works. That’s for sure. They’re people.”